Otho Marcus Salvius

, a Roman emperor descended from the ancient kings of Etruria. He was one of Nero’s favourites, and as such he was raised to the highest offices of the state, and made governor of Pannonia by the interest of Seneca, who wished to remove him from Rome, lest Nero’s love for Poppæa should prove his ruin. After Nero’s death Otho conciliated the favour of Galba the new emperor; but when he did not gain his point, and when Galba had refused to adopt him as his succe or, he resolved to make himself absolute, without any regard to the age and dignity of his friend. The great debts which he had contracted encouraged his avarice, and he caused Galba to be a a inated, and he made himself emperor. He was acknowledged by the senate and the Roman people, but the sudden revolt of Vitelli us in Germany rendered his situation precarious, and it was mutually resolved that their respective right to the empire should be decided by arms. Otho obtained three victories over his enemies, but in a general engagement near Brixellum, his forces were defeated, and he stabbed himself when all hopes of succe were vanished, after a reign of about three months, on the 20th of April, A.D. 69. It has been justly observed that the last moments of Otho’s life were those of a philosopher. He comforted his soldiers who lamented his fortunes, and he expre ed his concern for their safety, when they earnestly solicited to pay him the last friendly offices before he stabbed himself, and he observed that it was better that one man should die, than that all should be involved in ruin for his obstinacy. His nephew was pale and distre ed, fearing the anger and haughtine of the conqueror; but Otho comforted him, and observed that Vitelli us would be kind and affectionate to the friends and relations of Otho, since Otho was not ashamed to say, that in the time of their greatest enmity the mother of Vitelli us had received every friendly treatment from his hand. He also burnt the letters which, by falling into the hands of Vitelli us, might provoke his resentment against those who had favoured the cause of an unfortunate general. These noble and humane sentiments of a man who was the a ociate of Nero’s shameful pleasures, and who stained his hand in the blood of his master, have appeared to some wonderful, and pa ed for the features of policy, and not of a naturally virtuous and benevolent heart. Plutarch , Lives .— Suet on i us. — Tacitus , Histories , bk. 2 , ch. 50 , . — Juvenal , satire 2, li. 90 .――Roscius, a tribune of the people, who, in Cicero’s consulship, made a regulation to permit the Roman knights at public spectacles to have the 14 first rows after the seats of the senators. This was opposed with virulence by some, but Cicero ably defended it, . Horace , epode 4, li. 10 .――The father of the Roman emperor Otho was the favourite of Claudius.